A Ballston business with a logo that raised eyebrows for more than a decade due to its resemblance to a certain male appendage has closed.
Market Place & Cafe at 901 N. Glebe Road is now shuttered, its refrigerator cases and hot buffet both empty.
While some may miss the lunch buffet or the convenient drink options, the business is perhaps best known for its unusually phallic logo. Located near the corner of N. Glebe Road and N. Vermont Street since at least 2009, Market Place was inexorably linked to the logo, which features an especially tall chef’s hat with a rounded and slightly bifurcated top, and a similarly tall face that’s bulbous at the bottom, between a stylized, curled moustache.
The odd choice of logo did not escape the attention of Yelp reviewers over the years.
“Welcome to Dong Deli. Despite the ridic logo, the food isn’t that bad,” reads one 2011 review.
Eight years ago, when ARLnow went to inquire about how and why the business went with this logo, the reporter was thrown out of the store even before getting the question out.
Earlier this week, ARLnow visited the corner cafe again, but signs on the door noted that the business was closed. The listed phone number was also out of service.
“We are… closed,” the signs said. “Thank you!!!”
It may forever remain a mystery why this particular logo design was chosen and kept despite the obvious comparisons to the male anatomy, but customers will still have fond memories of the glory days.
“For all I care, the logo could be a vagina with tentacles and false teeth, I’d still eat here for breakfast,” said a 2014 review.
Hat tip to Peter G.